After the Estonian President Konstantin Päts was arrested by Soviet
occupation forces and deported to Russia in July 1940, Uluots became prime
minister in the duties of the president as dictated by the
Estonian constitution. When the Nazis invaded Soviet-occupied Estonia in
1941 the communist government was overthrown. In January 1944, the
front was pushed back by the Soviet Army almost all the way to the
former Estonian border. Narva
was evacuated. Jüri Uluots delivered a radio address that implored
all able-bodied men born from 1904 through 1923 to report for
military service (Before this, Uluots had opposed Estonian
mobilization.) The call drew support from all across the country:
38.000 draftees appeared at registration centers. [2] Several
thousand Estonians who had joined the Finnish army came back across
the Gulf of
Finland to join the newly formed Territorial Defense Force,
assigned to defend Estonia against the Soviet advance. It was hoped
that by engaging in such a war Estonia would be able to attract
Western support for the cause of Estonia's independence from the
USSR and thus ultimately succeed in achieving independence. [3] As the
Germans retreated in September, 1944, Uluots appointed a new
government, headed by Otto
Tief.

Tief's government left Tallinn prior to the Soviet
army's arrival and went into hiding. But most of the cabinet
members were later arrested and suffered various repressions by the
Soviet authorities, or were sent to labour camps in Siberia. The remainder of the
government fled to Stockholm, Sweden, where it operated in exile from
1944 to 1992 when Heinrich Mark, who was prime minister in
duties of the president, presented his credentials to incoming
president Lennart
Meri.